7/17: a familiar machine & an unfamiliar sight

When I graduated from high school (in 1986!) my parents gave me a sewing machine. I never needed my own machine while living at home: my mother runs a costume workshop, and I could always use the machines there and/or her machine at home. For the last two years of high school especially I did a lot of sewing, and so my parents wanted me to be able to carry the capability with me to college and beyond. My sister and I sewed each vacation while we were in college, working on clothes for the upcoming semester, and I continued sewing through the first half of graduate school. Then I stopped: I got busy; I didn't have a dedicated sewing area; fabric and patterns got expensive. Mostly I sew now for easy jobs, like hemming, mending, or making cloth napkins, pillow covers, or tablecloths. Over the past few days I've had my machine out quite a bit because I had a pile of hemming to work through. I also took a few minutes to make my own iPhone case. It was really fun, reminding me why I enjoyed sewing so much those years ago. And I still use that trusty machine which I got in 1986.

I wrote and posted the above, and then another good thing happened, so here it is. Chris and I watched two raccoons who had climbed a wild black cherry tree on the edge of our yard. They were scouring it, climbing up and down and all around, to get the berries. Fantastic to watch!